Page 52 of Death and Do-Overs

“Fascinating.”

We stepped into the elevator.

“Don’t you think it’s weird that Grit doesn’t want to talk about the damage or try to make you pay for repairs?” Imogen poked the button for the third floor.

The doors closed and the elevator began to rise.

“When fortune tips in my favor, I prefer not to question it.”

“But why?”

“Do you want to pay for a new glass door and an entire wall?”

Imogen gulped.

Maybe it wasn’t strange because Levi had already dealt with the issue. Or maybe Nevermore was simply the kind of place where these things happened. Either way, it wasn’t my problem. All I cared about was getting to our new room and convincing Imogen to bodysnatch the reaper.

No way she could refuse once Nie’s memories confirmed Bernadette’s guilt.

The new room was one floor lower than the last, and on the other side of the hall. As we entered and I turned on the light, I noted this one did not have a balcony, or any windows.

“Dark.” Imogen set her bag on the bed on the left. She yawned, took a seat on the mattress, and stretched her arms over her head.

“No balconies for monsters to climb,” I said.

Imogen nodded. “The room seems okay. Smells weird.”

“Dank and spicy,” I said. “All the rooms smell like this, apparently. Don’t drink the water from the sink.”

“What about showers? How bad is it?”

I shrugged, set my bag on the floor at the foot of the bed on the right, and put Nie’s messenger bag gently on the comforter.

The weight on my shoulder lifted. The weight on my heart remained.

The sooner I absorbed Nie, the sooner this suffering would end, probably replaced by a whole new brand of horror.

I carefully pulled down the sides of Nie’s bag. She looked…gone.

The truth waited for me inside her memories.

A storm of emotion swirled in my chest. Fear, anger, regret—I couldn’t indulge any of them. Not anymore. This had to be done. The air felt like molasses as I slowly reached my fingers out.

I touched both of Nie’s cheeks at the same time.

At the instant of contact, an icy white boulder bashed straight through my brain. I lost sensation in my body. I felt like I was falling.

I lost the piece of myself that was uniquely Mar.

I lost myself completely.

CHAPTER 13

MARNIE

Images and feelings rampaged through my mind. This was everything and nothing like the last time Mar and Nie were reintegrated into one single person. They each felt like me, and yet nothing like me. They felt like distant versions of the person I was meant to be.

These feelings were all nonsense.

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